Valentines Day

Over the years I've had mixed feelings about Valentines day. Let's go over my history and the trauma of growing up shall we? Yes, I'm an idiot, but to those who think I'm evil for my tendency to be a skeptic I'm going to explain...

In third grade I gave a little boy a valentine and he made fun of me in front of the whole class while reading my love note to all the boys. I remember crying and running away, as 9 year old girls often do. Little jerk...


When I was in 5th grade my then best friend decided I wasn't her best friend anymore because I got cast in the school play and she didn't, so she spread ugly rumors about me that caused mockery and bullying for the rest of fifth grade...and it happened during the school Valentine's day activity.
I felt like this kid:


When I was 16 years old, on V-day a boy I never met in my school gave me a rose and a poem about how he felt. I'd never noticed him before in my life, and this was before the "witty smart A" in me had emerged, so I was still a little awkward and afraid of the boy/girl thing. I just ignored the poor kid, making me feel like a jerk for the rest of high school every time I saw him, which turned out to be more often than I thought...he was everywhere and I didn't even know he existed before that, which added to my embarrassment. (Years later I apologized, so I guess that sort of makes up for it)

When I was 19 I was dating an evil, toxic person, but I won't share that story because it's kind of sad and probably too much information for those that don't know me well, but Valentine's day wasn't my friend that year. This is the only picture that I can think of to post memories of that idiot. Looks just like him too.


Anyway, valentines and I have had some issues over the years, but I actually had some good times too. I loved making little valentine's shoe boxes in grade school that all the kids in school would put valentines with candy into. I had some fun parties including an epic annual "Anti valentine" party hosted by my friend Natalie where we rocked out to loud music, had what was called the "Unromantical dinner" that included lots of junk food, danced like we were lunatics, and laughed until we couldn't breathe. This same friend and I once made little army men toy dolls and attached them to valentines cards that we would deliver to our girlfriends so that they could have a "man" for Valentines day. We had a lot of fun.


So V-day had it's up's and down's, but it was never a day where my heart would feel all a flutter and I'd get all gooey and lovey dovey about it.
Then at 24 years old I broke up with my then boyfriend (3 days before Valentine's day) because things were getting dramatic and I hated drama. (That's the short version, though he's a cool person and I wish him the best). Anyway it seemed like it was going to be another lame Valentine's day but I was determined to have fun. Being thrown back into the dating world, a guy I had met (around the same time my ex and I were having problems) asked me on a date for Valentines day, and he's still a friend, and got me a heart shaped box of chocolates so I don't want to be rude, but I wasn't interested, but since I was now broken up I went out with him, and it was THIS same day that I met his roommate and friend, who would become the love of my life. So I guess I owe Valentine's day after all.
SO...in the end, the Love part took over the skeptic part of Valentine's day for me, because Valentine's day brought me to Scott. I still joke about how commercial the holiday is when it comes to the way the media spins it...spending money and worshiping the wife while the husband gets little to no appreciation. However I love Valentines day because it's also the anniversary of when I met Scott. This year it was seven years since we met.


I was a little annoyed that Valentine's fell on a Monday, and on a day where both me and the shmoopsie had work. Also due to the fact that we're planning on moving to a new house in May, also possibly booking a trip to Hawaii in the summer and trying to save money, I was absolutely forbidden from spending money on the man.
I ended up making him some homemade service coupons, but I wanted to make them fun, so this is what I did:
I found some really cool textured paper, and cut it out into a bunch of card shapes using a credit card, so that I could make them look like gift cards. I decorated them with stickers and markers, and then came up with some great service activities that he could take advantage of without any pouting, complaining or protesting from me whenever he used one. With these special gift cards, I would not only do the service required, but with the best attitude possible. Some of them included:
Free Massage (a classic)
Get out of a family event for free (because let's face it, they don't want to go sometimes)
Free foot rub
Free guys night out
Complete control of the television for one night
Free argument win
Free favorite dinner made by wife
Get out of trouble free card (for when I'm not so pleased with him)
Anyway you get the idea. I made 20 of them, (some with an expiration date). Though he loved them, he says he won't use them because it would make him feel like a selfish jerk. We'll see though. When football and baseball season are back they may come in handy. Hahaha!
Anyway, it turned out Monday Valentines was still fantastic. Not only were my parents nice enough to take the kids overnight, but Scott took me to my favorite authentic Mexican restaurant. For those who don't know, I'm extremely picky with my Mexican food. Scott knows this, so as a gesture of romance, he took me somewhere "where the food speaks to my heart" according to him.
I'm a big believer that Valentines should be just as much for the Man as much as the woman, (hence the homemade coupons) so even though we watched a chick flick in the spirit of St. Valentine, I insisted that we watch a guy movie afterwords, which we did.
For me, we watched "The Holiday" with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz


...and for him, we watched Stephen King's The Shawshank Redemption


It was actually really easy to crank out 2 movies because the kids were gone. We had a great time, and were reminded of how thankful we are for Valentine's day seven years ago.

The Temple and Lisalisajan

As part of a belated birthday celebration, at the very end of January, or early February (I already can't remember) My dear friends Lisa and Janalee took me out on an all day girl's only excursion as a gift.
When we were young and single, the guys we used to hang out with would refer to us as "Lisalisajan" All one word. It was our nickname for the three of us. People would plan something and say that they needed to call "Lisalisajan" when they wanted to get a hold of us. Of course we loved it because being referred to as a unit made us feel kind of famous.
Anyway on this day went to the Temple together, which is something that I've only done with my spouse, my family, and only my closest of friends. We went to the Timpanogos temple, which has always been dear to me because it's the temple I got married in.
This was actually the perfect gift from my friends, because like I mentioned earlier, I had been really stressed out during January and coming to the Temple felt like a breath of fresh air after working in a coal mine for a month. I always come out of there refreshed and ready to face the world again, not to mention it's one of the few places I can go to organize my thoughts and feel inspired as to how to deal with my life's little issues.
Afterwords we went out to eat and then bought gourmet cookies. It was a blast. It's so great to be able to stay close to old friends after so long. I'm thankful for our 15 years of friendship.

Lisa enjoying her drink



Jan laughing at a joke


Lisalisajan then and now:


1998



2011



Awwww, love these girls.

Catching up because I'm late as usual

Okay so I should make this quick because I'm ridiculously behind. My life has been a little loco, but I'll take crazy over boring any day as most people who know me could tell you.
SO...

On Dec 17th, Scott and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We were able to drop the kids off with my folks and do our own thing for an entire day, which was fabulous. Scott as always bought me roses before our date and we had a romantic dinner, did some Christmas shopping for the kids (which sounds boring, but we actually have a blast picking out what toys our kids might like) and watched a movie. I know I always say this, but Scott is the best. Before you all groan and roll your eyes at my lame swooning, let me give you an example. The other day I'm in sweats, glasses, a ponytail, and no makeup. I'm minding my own business watching TV and I look up and see him staring at me. When I ask him "What is it" he tells me that I'm beautiful. He does this for NO reason. I snort and laugh him off and he said, "No really...you have a 'wow' factor that just makes me look at you sometimes." Seriously....how amazing is it that I found the only man on earth that is somehow deliriously all about me in all my ugly glory. Seriously, all I needed was a retainer and I would have been in full nerd bloom. The part that floors me is we've been together 6 years and he still thinks that. I'm so blessed to have him in my life. I keep waiting for the day when he wakes up one morning and feels ripped off for having a goofy, sarcastic, unfocused random women as a wife who hates cooking and is prone to breakdowns during her time of the month. All I know is that happiness truly is being married to your best friend. I'm thankful for these last 6 years and the adventure we've been on together as a married couple. Like all marriages, we have our ups and downs, but our ups are so high it's worth everything.


Moving on.


Christmas...
Um... Okay first we had a White elephant gift party with Scott's family. The rule was that we each spent 10 bucks,and then we played "Dirty Santa" style...meaning we can steal gifts from each other on different turns. Since Itri's are all competitive, this would be entertaining.
Kelsy...the Master of dessert making, provided some awesome appetizers as usual.



Hanging out




Presents!!!


Anyway, good times were had by all, and there was lots of stealing and squabbling over gifts.

Speaking of gifts...

Crystal and Seth hit the jackpot this year.



Seth had several new additions to his superhero collection



Meanwhile Crystal had enough cute girly things to last a lifetime.



Of course they needed presents they could share too.









Okay fast forward...




Crystal turned 5 at the end of the month. It's been a month and a half and it still blows my mind that I'm the mother of a 5 year old. Not just any 5 year old, Crystal. She is and always has been an amazing blessing in my life. Not only is she my beautiful little girl, but she's my friend. She's an amazing older sister, she helps me around the house, and she keeps me company when Scott works long hours. I love my little monkeygirl.

We took her out to eat at one of her favorite restaurants, Chillies, and she was allowed to order whatever she wanted on the menu.


Of course she got her favorite dessert, Molten Chocolate Cake, and she shared it with Seth.


For her present she got the Sleeping Beauty doll pack from me, and a leapster video game from Scott. One of these days I need to plug the Leapster Explorer. It's small and portable and you can buy games for it, and the best part is that all of the games are educational, which is great since we've been teaching Crystal to read so that she'll have a bit of a head start when she goes into kindergarten in the fall.


Next...




New years eve.


We were lucky enough to have Scott's parents, Nick and Margie in town for Scott's aunts wedding, so we were able to enjoy New Years Eve with them over at my parents house.





While we were there, I somehow managed to break one of the nutcrackers that my parents had on display. Not just break him, I cut his head off. I don't know how these things always happen to me.



There was TONS of food.





Seth kept sneaking in between people in line to steal grapes.





Good times were had by all.


















So that was December.

JANUARY


Honestly, January was kind of a pain in the butt for me, so I kind of prefer not to remember it. I'm talking traffic tickets, two flat tires, a misdemeanor, appearing in court and traffic school. This sounds like I'm some kind of reckless driving lunatic, but I was only going 8 miles over the speed limit and the judge knew the cop who pulled me over was crazy, so he just sent me to traffic school and gave me a small speeding ticket in the end. That's the EXTREMELY SHORT version.

Also I turned 31. Scott invited a bunch of family to come over to celebrate it, and we made and ate our own pizzas, Kelsey made cake and we watched the movie "Unstoppable" together. It was probably the only decent day during the whole month, and of course, it was because of my amazing husband who put it all together.

Here's some birthday pics:

My annual obligatory birthday shot taken by Scott. Someday I'll be able to line them all up in a row and see myself age through photographs and weep.



Johnny flipping his pizza



















So that was January.

Stay tuned for February...
topics will include Temple trips with 2 of my girlfriends whom I love, preparing to move to a bigger home, our crazy life with our fabulous children, traffic school, Valentines day and potty training. Yikes.

Awww. Cutest Mary EVER.

Crystal and her friend Andrew played Mary and Joseph in our church Christmas program/party this year. Her headdress kept slipping down and the camera was being a jerk and wouldn't focus no matter what setting I used, so these pictures aren't top quality, but I love them anyway.

She was excited all week long to play the role of Mary. She took her job very seriously. We're so proud of our little monkey!